Guardrails from demolished City Hall get a new lease on life as park benches
Concrete guardrails from the old City Hall now serve as three benches in Lakelanpuisto in Espoon keskus. You can rest on the benches and perhaps think back to the old building.
The benches include signs that say ‘Kaupungintalo 1971–2022’. The City Hall was demolished in summer 2022 after standing idle since 2008. The area will become even more pleasant once trees and flower bulbs are planted around the benches.
Landscape Architect Kristina Rocha from the Public Works Department came up with the bench idea.
“The guardrails were smaller than the façade elements and I thought that they would be easier to move and reuse. The guardrails also have the same exposed aggregate concrete surface as the façade, which was characteristic of the building,” Rocha says.
The long benches have room for several people to sit.
The city’s ambitious goal is to recycle 70 per cent of demolition materials in the future. These benches are a small step towards achieving this goal.
Other materials were also recovered from the demolished building. For example, concrete was reused in earthworks, and window glass was used as raw material for foam glass. Foam glass is used in building structures, among other things.
